


Shorebreak

by dansunedisco



Series: Evergreen [1]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Castle Black, Gen, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Season/Series 06, Stolen Moments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:53:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22742803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dansunedisco/pseuds/dansunedisco
Summary: Jon comes back different, and so does she.-A moment at Castle Black.
Relationships: Jon Snow & Sansa Stark, Jon Snow/Sansa Stark
Series: Evergreen [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1628935
Comments: 4
Kudos: 49





	Shorebreak

“He sold me,” she says.

He’s already had to change the wood in the hearth twice over since Sansa came to his chambers. They broke bread and shared ale, and traded words two strangers reunited best could. He learned of Cersei and honey-sweet promises laced with poison; Sansa’s unwanted marriages; the cause of the bruises on her body and dark circles under her eyes. He traded her the wildings; Ygritte; red, red snow and blood and what waits for them beyond the Wall. Choosing who has suffered worse or most isn’t the game he’s wanting to play at, but it seems neither of them have many good tidings to divulge; hours of hurt for hurt. But this, now: this feels different. He waits.

“Littlefinger,” she spits the name out like a curse. Her fingers turn whiter than bone around her pewter cup. “I pretended to be Alayne in the Eyrie. His bastard daughter. He’d promised to protect me. He’d promised he’d _loved me_ like he’d loved my mother. But he’s a liar and I was a fool. To believe in him or believe in love…” The corner of her mouth twitches up, a mocking smile. “As soon as he could turn profit or earn a favor, he’d bundled me up and sold me.” Her shoulders come up. He expects tears in her eyes, but he finds ice instead. “To Littlefinger, I am-- I _was_ nothing more than property. A piece to be moved.”

A quiet rage builds in Jon with every word of her story, a spark catching the dry kindling that is his temper, a gentle breeze promising the impending storm. Ghost whines from the corner of the room. He turns Littlefinger’s name over and over in his head. He wants to kill this man. Rend him apart piece by piece; plunge Longclaw into his heart; rip his throat out with his teeth. Make him hurt. The thoughts lick at his bones like red hot flames. He’s killed men before. But it was never because he _wanted_ to.

Then, Sansa touches her hand to his. Like a wave cresting over the shorebreak, his anger melts away into the dark sea inside of him: gone, not forgotten, and terrifying all the same. He breathes in, sharp and overloud in the silence of his chambers.

“I’m sorry,” he says. _I’m sorry I didn’t protect you._ Sansa, his radiant sister. He’d thought of her as he lay bleeding, dying; the girl who was kind and sweet and pure. The woman that meets him now is that girl no longer. She’s been ground down, mortar and pestle, by the dirt and grit and cruelty of the world and he wasn’t there to stop any of it. _I’m here now_ , he wants to say. _I’m here now and I would die again rather than let anyone hurt you._ The words catch in his throat.

“I’m sorry, too,” she says, small and sad, and they watch the embers of the fire glow orange and red and white instead of talking; hand over hand in the dead of night.

Neither of them sleeps that night. The sun rises slowly in this barren wasteland at the edge of the world, a slip of grey light reaching over the horizon. Castle Black stirs awake. Men relieve men atop the Wall, cook breakfast, hammer horseshoes and carry on. Eventually, so do they, too.


End file.
